Former state minister Anwarul Kabir dies from COVID-19

Anwarul Kabir Talukder, a former state minister of the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami government, has died from COVID-19 at 76.

The retired army major general breathed his last at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka on Sunday afternoon.

His cousin and chief of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital’s pathology department Md Habibullah Prodhan confirmed to reporters in Jamalpur that Anwarul had tested positive for the deadly disease.

Anwarul’s younger brother Faridul Kabir Talukder Shamim, who heads the BNP’s Jamalpur district unit, said the former state minister was admitted to the hospital a few days ago with fever.

Anwarul, a nephew to former BNP secretary general Abdus Salam Talukder, was elected MP from Jamalpur-4 or Sarishabari constituency in 2001.

He had worked as state minister for finance and planning first and then for power, energy and mineral resources.

Anwarul later left the BNP and joined the Liberal Democratic Party. He had distanced himself from political activities in recent times.